Exporting our ‘expertise’ So, this happened:   According to the article in the 23 October 2017 Cape Breton Post: Officials from the Cape Breton Partnership and the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities completed their first mission to Vietnam in June. The officials will be providing their expertise to counterparts in VietnamRead More

Writing about wastewater earlier this year, I raised the possibility that CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke might not be worried about meeting a December 2020 deadline associated with new federal wastewater regulations because he’s already announced he won’t be seeking a third term — which means he will bid us farewellRead More

Nancy King at the Cape Breton Post has been trying to pin down the component costs for the CBRM’s second cruise ship berth. King FOIPOPed the NS Department of Municipal Affairs asking for the breakdown of costs submitted by the CBRM in its request for provincial funding. The answer toRead More

Quebec’s “religious neutrality” Bill 62 has passed the Quebec legislature and will come into effect immediately, although there are no specific guidelines for those who will have to enforce or administer said law, which, strangely enough, has neither penalties nor fines attached to it. Critics see the bill as aRead More

The invitation I received from New Dawn for the inaugural Father Greg MacLeod Lecture says the series, named for the late community advocate, will invite us to “love an idea — especially a distinct, hopeful, outside-the box, radical idea” about “the life we know in Cape Breton.” I have toRead...

What to do this week Now that the leaves are being blown off by the fall winds that have finally arrived, it is a good time for hardwood propagation of some of your perennial bushes. Gooseberries and currants are what I am working on this week, but you can doRead More

Kudos to the Post? Oh yeah, you read that correctly: this week, the cranky ol’ Spectator is congratulating the Cape Breton Post on its new website, which is crisp and clean and mercifully free of the clickbait ads that used to cover its home page like measles on the faces ofRead More

Back in August, I read that Point Edward Marine — a company majority owned by McKeil Marine — was subletting its land in the Sydport Industrial Park to Heddle Marine (another Point Edward Marine partner, in the news lately for its spot of bother with the federal government over theRead More

Sorry for the radio silence here. I have been ill — in the hospital actually. Nothing serious or life-threatening, my nice Doctor says stress and overwork. Working 16-hour days, seven days a week for four months straight was not a good idea. Turns out I am not superwoman. Crap. IRead More

Earlier this year, the idea of a guaranteed annual income (GAI) was in the news, including in The Cape Breton Spectator where yours truly wrote about Ontario’s plan to “launch a pilot project to assess whether a basic income can better support vulnerable workers, improve health and education outcomes forRead More